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Those who went in boots and all to defend the immediate hard lockdown of the Flemington and North Melbourne towers should, at barest minimum, read the Victorian Ombudsman's 6-page summary report on the human rights breaches and clear mishandling.
https://assets.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/assets/Reports/Parliamentary-Reports/Public-housing-tower-lockdown/English-Summary-of-investigation-into-public-housing-tower-lockdown.pdf
https://assets.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/assets/Reports/Parliamentary-Reports/Public-housing-tower-lockdown/English-Summary-of-investigation-into-public-housing-tower-lockdown.pdf
The full report goes into more detail as to the organisational chaos as well as the traumatic impact upon residents of the fencing and overwhelming police presence https://assets.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/assets/Reports/Parliamentary-Reports/Public-housing-tower-lockdown/Victorian-Ombudsman-report-Investigation-into-the-detention-and-treatment-of-public-housing-residents-arising-from-a-COVID-19-hard-lockdown-in-July-2020.pdf?mtime=20201216075340
The striking thing about the full 252-page report is that this is not merely a case of 20/20 hindsight, nearly every concern that it outlines was being raised in real-time and repeatedly from the very first night.
For example... "Some health workers engaged in the
operation told investigators they also thought the significant police presence was unreasonable and possibly counterproductive to the public health objectives of the lockdown."
operation told investigators they also thought the significant police presence was unreasonable and possibly counterproductive to the public health objectives of the lockdown."
"Police were acting as gatekeepers to a process about which they had no knowledge, and whose real gatekeepers (DHHS) were kept at arm’s length and isolated from clients and service
providers."
providers."
Anyway, I imagine that is the last we will see of completely over the top police enforcement of situations involving certain demograph- https://twitter.com/_Biancah/status/1339366370597748737
When the Ombudsman says you racist.
Nobody wants an apology for "saving people’s lives", just the merest passing acknowledgement that mistakes and bad decisions were made in the rush and policing your way out of a pandemic disproportionately hurts certain communities https://twitter.com/thejimmalo/status/1339372787228557313
This comes back yet again to institutional racial bias in the 'perception' of risk when it comes to certain communities being out of step with the actual risk, as teased out here. https://twitter.com/Police_Acc_Proj/status/1339382673907752960
Heartening to see a significant number of people who clearly have no intention of taking the slightest interest in what went wrong here and why, or reflecting upon what lessons could be taken into the future.
